Telecoms must reserve shares specifically for Ugandans - govt

Kampala: Telecoms will be required put aside a certain percentage of shares specifically for Ugandans with the view of retaining dividends within the country.
Cabinet recently passed the National Broadband Policy, among which, will require telecoms to list on the Uganda Securities Exchange.
In an interview at the weekend, Mr Frank Tumwebaze, the ICT and Information minister, told Daily Monitor that government will require telecoms to designate a percentage of its shares specifically for Ugandans.
“We shall demand from all telecoms that a certain percentage of shares is reserved,” he said emphasising that the objective is to mitigate capital flight.
However, Mr Tumwebaze could not state how much will be reserved, saying, government will discuss the modalities with guidance from the Capital Markets Authority.
He was addressing concerns raised by Mr Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN chief executive officer, during a press briefing last week had said that listing might not be the best means of localising telecoms since foreign companies could dominate in shareholding.
“Listing is not necessarily the best or easiest way to achieve that objective. Anybody can own shares, some countries that have forced telecoms to list, 90 per cent of those shares are not owned by citizens of that country, but rather foreigners,” he said.
He, on the other hand, revealed that MTN was in discussions with Ugandan institutional investors to guarantee local ownership of the telecom’s shareholding.
However, Mr Vanhelleputte said, if listing becomes an obligation, they will realign the telecom’s operations with the required laws.
Airtel and Africell say they have received any official communication in regard to mandatory listing.